Isnt 5g supposed to be really fast?

Looks like EE has potentially become quite congested in my area, 4g struggling to clear 20mbps, but magically hits the EE essentials cap in the early hours of the morning, hmm I wonder what would cause that.

Now 5g is officially available at my address, indoor and outdoor coverage.

I turned it on and its even worse, about 7mbps. Outdoors it only slightly improved.

Full signal bars on both 4g and 5g.

What good is 5g if its oversold like crazy?

BT please sell back to the original EE owners so we can go back to it being a high priced premium network.

Edited by Chrysalis (Sun 19-Nov-23 16:18:14)

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

Re: Isnt 5g supposed to be really fast?

That's the mistake, thinking the "G" is related to speed. Its a protocol, and it depends how much capacity is allocated to the protocol. Unfortunately the (simplistic) marketing is all about speed, as they have nothing else to talk about.

My town has no 5G on EE, Vodafone or O2, and yet I can regularly manage 150 to 200 Mbps on 4G, which if you talk to some Americans they think is impossible.

If you have phone that can report the bands (e.g. Android with Cellmapper, or iPhone Field Test) you can see if you are getting a real 5G NR NSA signal, or if you have a 5G indicator which is actually still a 4G LTE signal. Thanks to the GSM Association the 5G indicator is virtually meaningless.

Depending where you are EE are deploying 5G on various frequency bands, in some cases replacing 4G, but in most cases additional to. This means often it is quite a high frequency such as Band 78 which is 3400 MHz and will have issues getting indoors, unless you are right by a glass window (without any heat reflecting film).

A useful list of frequencies and deployment here:
https://mastdatabase.co.uk/gb/spectrum/

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

BT please sell back to the original EE owners so we can go back to it being a high priced premium network.

Unlikely as Orange wanted out, and Deutsche Telekom still have a shareholding.

Edited by jchamier (Sun 19-Nov-23 16:53:39)

What bands am I looking for? To determine if I have fake 5g or real 5g.

My 4G used to be great so I think it does look like a simple capacity problem.

Network cell info lite reports it as LTE, but its possible that app is not recognising it properly. So I took it with a grain of salt.

Cellmapper reports what seems to be band B3 1846mhz.

However when I dropped it to 4G, it stayed on the same band.

If I force the phone to connect to NR only, it fails to connect to anything, even outside.

Edited by Chrysalis (Sun 19-Nov-23 20:50:27)

LTE is 4g!!!!!! Go to raw on Network cell info lite and screen grab the info. Note that the info will give a clue to where you are located .

Regarding 5G; 99% of 5g in the uk is piggy backing onto 4g - ie 5g nsa, once we get more standalone 5g things will improve.

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

Network cell info lite reports it as LTE, but its possible that app is not recognising it properly. So I took it with a grain of salt.
Cellmapper reports what seems to be band B3 1846mhz.

Run both of these apps when also doing a speedtest. The way 5G is set up (Non-Standalone Architecture) the 5G is like an overtaking lane. The phone sits on 4G until the overtaking lane is needed.

However when I dropped it to 4G, it stayed on the same band.
If I force the phone to connect to NR only, it fails to connect to anything, even outside.

Because the only "standalone architecture" in the UK is limited access, and in London with Vodafone.

EE's uses Band 3 for the bulk of its UK wide capacity on 4G/LTE

Edited by jchamier (Mon 20-Nov-23 05:04:22)

In reply to a post by Taras:

LTE is 4g!!!!!! Go to raw on Network cell info lite and screen grab the info. Note that the info will give a clue to where you are located .

And as you state, the UK (and much of the world!) is using Non-Standalone Architecture, the phone will ALWAYS be connected to 4G/LTE for signalling and use the 5G NSA signal as an overtaking lane.

Regarding 5G; 99% of 5g in the uk is piggy backing onto 4g - ie 5g nsa, once we get more standalone 5g things will improve.

Vodafone have standalone around in some cities, see "Vodafone 5G Ultra" for those with some Samsung handsets on the right plans.

5G is awful in a lot of places, as already been posted, 5G don't mean speed, even if it is marketed as such. I know a few people who have phones with 5G and say 5G is so bad sometimes they disable it.

Problem is here the 4G has gone bad as well, if it was just 5G I wouldnt be bothered.

I know its 4G, but an app doesnt necessarily recognise something right.

As an example on this phone net analyzer thinks I am connecting over 3G.

Seems a little bit complex, so if I understand you right me seeing the same band for both doesnt matter, as extra band's open up if I push enough traffic?

I have now reported the slow speeds to EE without mentioning the 4G/5G stuff, and made it very clear it is back to full speed during quiet periods but tumbles like a stone outside of those hours, and it used to be full speed or close to full speed round the clock so a clear service degradation.

Later I will see if I can switch apps whilst a speedtest is running and screen record it.

Edited by Chrysalis (Mon 20-Nov-23 08:24:45)